Tag Archives: safe

My wife and I go to this chain seafood restaurant in our local area once in a while. I won’t disclose the name of the place since it will elicit a slew of criticism from the seafood purists out there (to be fair, I do frequent the local mom and pop seafood joints). It’s not great seafood, but it’s the only place within 50 miles where I can get a nice plate of fresh oysters on the half shell. Well, I guess I should say I USED to get oysters there. Lately every time I ask, they are out of the delicious mollusks. Because of that, you may think I would want less people to eat oysters so I can have my share. On the contrary I say, eat more oysters please, and here’s why…

Oysters Are The Original Fast Food

What else can you simply pluck from the bottom of the ocean, shuck open, and slide into your gullet? Yeah, we can eat fish raw, but it takes some processing. Oysters you can just open and eat. Indigenous peoples have been eating them for centuries. When Europeans came over for the first time, they were amazed to find Long Island covered with discarded oyster shells. And all along both coasts we can find evidence of ancient native settlements by the mounds and mounds of shells. An all you can eat buffet. I’m jealous.

Oysters Are Good For You

Aside from the old wives’ tale that oysters can boost your libido (which science says isn’t true but we’ll be the judge of that, thank you very much), eating them actually can give you some great health benefits. The bivalves are loaded with zinc, which boosts your immune system, helps prevent acne, eases rashes, and strengthens your bones. Try getting that from fast food.

Oysters Are Good For The Planet

There is a lot of controversy out there right now about the safety of farm raised fish. Some farmed salmon suffer tremendously unhealthy living conditions and are fed toxic substances. Fish from the different areas around the world are contaminated by industrial wastes. In other fish, additives are put in to preserve the fat that may be lost in processing. The accumulation of contaminants and other dangerous substances makes them many times more poisonous than any other food available in a normal supermarket. With Oysters, this kind of contamination does not occur. Unlike fish, oysters don’t need to be fed, and thus do not further deplete wild seafood stocks. Instead, oysters behave like sponges, absorbing and filtering their food from the water around them with no additional assistance needed. Oysters never generate waste or pollute the water, even in densely packed beds. Quite the reverse, they remove nitrogen and helps with water clarity.

If We All Eat More Oysters, There Will Be More Oysters

I know this sounds antithetical to my cause of amassing more oysters for my own general consumption, but it’s true. If more people ate fresh oysters, more people would get the bright idea to farm more oysters. And then all would be right in the world. Oh, yeah, that world peace thing would be good too.

The last couple of years have been phenomenal for razor clamming along the Oregon and Washington Coasts. Record “Boon and Crockett” specimens have been showing up in people’s buckets, with giant four-inchers last year, and two-inchers this year. It was going to be another clam bounty in the Pacific Northwest. Was. Past tense. All that came to a grinding halt over the last week as officials have announced clamming is closed due to toxic acidity. The recommendations are clear for clam diggers: do not eat the clams. But what about SCUBA diving during an algae outbreak? Is it safe?

First, A Little Info
Whenever an algal bloom occurs, most people call it red tide. The algae, scientists call them phytoplankton, are microscopic, plant-like organisms that form dense patches near the water’s surface. These patches vary in color from green to brown to red. Another name for a red tide is “harmful algal bloom” or HAB. Red tides can cause the deaths of fish, coastal birds, marine mammals and other organisms.

If you eat food contaminated by domoic acid, which is the toxic substance found in the algal blooms, you can get sick. This includes mussels, clams, oysters, sardines, anchovies and the viscera of lobsters. It can cause permanent short-term memory loss, cardiac arrhythmias, and respiratory problems along with less severe symptoms as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps.

An interesting side note: the first recorded red tide occurred in what is now modern British Columbia in June, 1793. During Captain George Vancouver’s exploration of the area, men in his crew ate some mussels they had found. Almost immediately their lips and finger tips went numb. The numbness progressed until their arms and legs were paralyzed and nausea set in. Two centuries later the perpetrator was known: phytoplankton had contaminated the mussels, leading to the sickness of Vancouver’s men and the demise of one of his men.

But What About SCUBA?
Toxic algal blooms are harmless underwater, especially if you are diving offshore. Shore dives can be tougher. The stench can affect sensitive people and they’ll have trouble breathing. Red Tides have a large amount of dead critters, from the plankton itself to other organisms done in by the dearth of oxygen. As this biological matter decays, the smell gets worse and can cause problems for some people breathing it in on the beach. While this reduces visibility in the water, your actually diving in under the water should not be affected.

When diving through a red tide, you will experience low viz, stinky gear (you will have to wash everything thoroughly after you dive) and some respiratory irritation. It won’t damage your gear. As a rule, most people would probably advise against diving in a red tide, but from all the available research, it isn’t harmful.